[ffrancis55]

I'm thinking about doing a PhD in the field of LES simulation and for the moment, I really don't know which country or which university is better ?

[FMDenaro]

At present, apart from the well known US universities, some european universities are very good to do PhD in the LES field.

[ffrancis55]

Do you have any example?

[kaya]

Originally Posted by ffrancis55

I'm thinking about doing a PhD in the field of LES simulation and for the moment, I really don't know which country or which university is better ?

You can go to a place by thinking like is the best and end up with a supervisor who 'll have his hands on your shoulders all the time on a project which may happen to be useless in terms of knowledge transfer. You may also start facing the egoist side of research which, I guess, is more common in these 'top' universities since there probably are 'ego' magnetos for these clever-but-not-that-much people. I met some of these type in the field that you're interested.

Or you can find the most relaxed supervisor ever where you'd be free but you may not have interesting ideas that could lead you to learn much and you may also end up having the whole responsibly of some dummy project which, I believe, can easily be the most stressful thing ever

i ve seen both so it actually is a roulette and you really don't have many chips.

long story short, in my opinion, if someone says that university is better, its a lie. Its the project, supervisor and most importantly the phd candidate that matters. plus, in this internet world, having the knowledge around you can only save you time which I don't think is any better if you were unlucky.


ps. I myself a 2-year-phd candidate, so don't take me that serious.

[ffrancis55]

I completely understand your point and I would like to take this factor into account when the time will come to make a decision. But at the same time, the same logic apply in smaller universities, so I guess you are right when you say that the director and the project themselves are more important, but you'll only know if you have made the right choice after few months. So, yes I agree with you on that but if I don't know where to go... It's not better.

I've just started to read about it and for the moment, I think that there is some good groups at the university of Maryland and some other in France. If you know some other places it would be very appreciated.

I appreciate your answer. Thank you